Five players — Manpreet Singh, S.V. Sunil, Devinder Walmiki (all BPCL), Ramandeep Singh (Punjab & Sind Bank) and V.R. Raghunath (IOC) — who were all part of the Indian men’s team at the Rio Olympics, will be the star attractions in the all-India MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup hockey tournament, beginning on Thursday.
Tushar Khandekar, who is the assistant coach of the Indian men’s team, will play for BPCL.
The tournament director, Manish N. Gour, said it would be played in two halves of 35 minutes each and not four quarters of 15 minutes each. “Except the senior National championships, the rest of the domestic tournaments in India will have to be played in 70-minute duration.
“Only the global events will be played in four quarters. We are strictly going by FIH (International body) regulations,” he said.
Earlier, in an exhibition match, Rohit Kuttappa’s hat-trick helped MCC defeat The Hindu 4-2.
The result: MCC 4 (Rohit Kuttappa 3, Iqbal Sait 1) bt The Hindu 2 (M. Raja, K. Balaji).
